Upper Big Branch's headquarters are in Raleigh County though the mine crosses into Boone County.

The 54 closure orders "suggest that not enough attention was being given to the safety conditions," said J. Davitt McAteer, who ran the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) during the Clinton administration. "The overall violation record at the mine is pretty significant."

On Jan. 7, MSHA fined Upper Big Branch about $136,000 and ordered a partial closure after finding repeated problems with its ventilation plan. Such plans are vital to safety because they describe how a mine will control flammable and poisonous gases such as methane, which may have ignited Monday's blast.

MSHA records do not say what conditions led to the $136,000 fine. The vent-plan problems cited on Jan. 7 were fixed that same day, MSHA records show. That means the conditions MSHA found probably would not have caused the explosion Monday, former MSHA inspector Joe Pavlovich said.

"MSHA doesn't just write these violations and then let them go. They give a short amount of time to correct a condition," Pavlovich said.

Mine owner Massey Energy was excoriated in a MSHA investigation of a 2006 underground fire that killed two miners in the company's Aracoma Alma coal mine in West Virginia.

MSHA found that the "required fire suppression system was not installed and there was no water available in the area to fight the fire."

Massey subsidiary Aracoma Coal pleaded guilty in 2008 to 10 safety crimes, paid a $2.5 million fine and another $1.7 million for more than 1,300 violations. After the fire, Aracoma launched "a renewed focus on safety," Massey said in a statement at the time.

Massey cut workplace injuries in 2009 and has an injury rate below the national average, the company said recently.

McAteer, who led two independent probes of mining accidents after leaving MSHA, said he found "serious deficiencies" in Massey's safety program. "That was communicated directly to (Massey) President Don Blankenship," McAteer said.

In some safety areas, such as equipping mining machines with devices that help prevent workers from getting crushed, Massey "is actually more progressive," said Celeste Monforton, a former MSHA staffer.

Blankenship has stoked controversy by keeping his mines non-union and being politically active. "He relishes being the defender of coal as part of the American way of life," Monforton said. "He's kind of vilified."

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